apple tv

Apple's short-lived but cult-appreciated Newton PDA was "15 years too early" according to ex-CEO John Sculley, who also believes the tech company could "revolutionize" the TV world by taking it back to "first principles." Sculley, who took over as Apple CEO in the 80s in a move that led to Steve Jobs leaving the company, told the BBC that he believes "televisions are unnecessarily complex."

Apple's set-top box, the Apple TV, has been coaxed into running full iOS apps, effectively turning the $99 device into a palm-sized iOS computer. The handiwork of Steve Troughton-Smith, the hack allows iPhone and iPad apps like Safari, Facebook and Angry Birds to be run on your big-screen TV at 720p 1280 x 720 resolution, using a Jailbroken Apple TV and some cleverly cooked code.

If you’ve been following the latest rumors surrounding Apple’s television plans, you know that a new report claims the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is only planning to offer 32- and 37-inch options starting next summer.

Earlier this month, Apple opened a new store inside New York City’s Grand Central Station. This is not Apple’s only store in Manhattan and does not make a dramatic architectural statement like its Cube on Fifth Avenue. Much of its retail model has been seen before in other Apple stores. Yet when I visited it just before it opened it felt radically different than any other retail environment – even different from other Apple stores – and serves as an object lesson for how to sell and support digital products at retail in an increasingly online world. Even if you dislike Apple’s products (or just some of its more enthusiastic fans), if you’re in Manhattan, Apple’s store is worth a visit. Apple claims that it sells more per square foot than any other major retailer in the world, and while some of that is due to products that sell well on their own, Apple’s retail store processes, compensation structure, and architecture all play roles worth investigating.

Apple has reportedly ramped up its TV strategy, outlining a Siri and motion controlled television system in recent meetings with media executives and fleshing out its wirelessly-enabled smart TV set. The company has been courting several of the larger media companies, the WSJ's insiders tell them, selling the benefits of a cross-platform system that could recognize viewers whether they were using their TV, a tablet or a phone. However, the talks have fallen short of entering the negotiation phase for actual content licensing.

If you’ve been paying attention to the mobile market over the last several months, you know that Apple and Samsung are at each other’s throats over alleged patent infringement. And with lawsuits flying worldwide, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the war between the firms will spill over into next year.

Apple has quietly activated TV show purchases on the Apple TV for owners in Canada, the UK and Australia, adding outright buying options to the existing iTunes rentals. Until now, Apple TV boxes outside of the US had only been able to stream TV show rentals bought through iTunes; now, there are reports from Canada, the UK and Australia that those limitations have been lifted. However, you'll still need an internet connection to watch the shows.

Apple could ease itself into the TV market by integrating Apple TV and iCloud functionality into an iMac-style all-in-one, one analyst has suggested, using a hybrid TV/computer in 2012 as a bridging step before its true Apple Televisions go on sale. The existing 27-inch iMac is a likely launch point, Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair wrote in a note this week, with the suggestion that "Apple's redesign of the iMac in the first half of 2012 will likely usher in some … TV capability into the iMac offering first," AllThingsD reports.

Gaming has long been Microsoft's wildcard: while the company struggles to find its feet with Windows Phone, and faces a difficult tablet market when its Windows 8 slates finally appear, the Xbox 360 continues to sell strongly. Now Xbox TV has arrived to not only reassure 360-owning gamers that they made the right console choice, but broaden the 360's appeal to a whole new segment. It's not entirely fashionable to praise Microsoft, especially when it's over something that, buried in the company's history books, they've tried and failed at before. Smart TV has suffered the usual ignominies and from the usual flaws: sluggish hardware, confusing interface, dawdling internet connections. Now, with Xbox LIVE TV, all the pieces seem finally to be coming together.

The rumors have been going around for a while now that Apple was working on a new TV that is an actual TV, not the Apple TV set top box we are familiar with. A new rumor is making the rounds today that comes from supposed sources in the major Japanese firm that is involved in making the TV. According to these sources, the Apple TV will come in three screen sizes.